The present invention generally relates to aviation electronics or avionics, and more particularly relates to line replaceable units (LRUs) of avionics equipment which are mated together in an aircraft, and even more particularly relates to a system and method for optically and mechanically coupling such LRUs with other avionics equipment.
In the past, designers of avionics systems have endeavored to provide systems with improved performance and weight characteristics. One crucial element in such systems has been the weight and cost associated with interconnecting various line replaceable units on the aircraft. Typically, this interconnection is accomplished with a myriad of wires and wiring harnesses.
While these wiring harnesses have many advantages and have enjoyed extensive use in the past, they also have significant drawbacks.
First of all, these wiring harnesses are usually associated with connectors in an instrument panel on the aircraft for receiving LRUs. These wiring harnesses and their associated connectors often consume a considerable amount of the permissible weight of an aircraft.
Secondly, when the line replaceable units are directly connected with each other, the amount of wiring that is needed increases dramatically with each new LRU added to the combination.
Consequently, there exists a need for improvement in avionics systems and methods for coupling LRUs to such systems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide reduced weight consumption for avionics LRUs and their interconnecting systems.
It is a feature of the present invention to utilize an optical backplane.
It is an advantage of the present invention to allow the LRU to be mated with other LRUs without any associated wiring harnesses.
It is another advantage of the present invention to eliminate the potential for electrical pin damage upon insertion of an LRU into a wiring harness connector.
The present invention is an apparatus and method for mating avionics LRUs with other electronic equipment, which is designed to satisfy the aforementioned needs, provide the previously stated objects, include the above-listed features and achieve the already articulated advantages. The present invention is carried out with a xe2x80x9cwiring harness-less systemxe2x80x9d in a sense that the number of and weight of avionics LRU interconnect wiring harnesses has been greatly reduced.
Accordingly, the present invention is a system and method for mating avionics LRUs with other electronic equipment where the system includes an optically transmissive layer disposed on an avionics instrument panel and optical transmitters and receivers disposed on or about the LRUs for generation and reception of signals propagated over the optically transmissive layer.